Setting up an authorized trader

Account holders can designate a specific person such as a spouse, family member, or friend as an authorized trader for their account.

Authorized traders without their own Questrade accounts can obtain their own unique username and password allowing them trading access to designated accounts through the trading platform. If the authorized trader has their own Questrade account, they’ll be able to log in with their username and place trades on the authorized account after the set-up process is complete.

Authorized traders can:

• Place trades on your behalf
• View account activity, balances, and positions
• View trade confirmations and limited statements

Authorized traders however cannot:

• Place, or update withdrawals, or other administrative requests
  • Such as transfer of funds/positions between accounts
• Provide DRIP instructions
• Place/accept corporate action requests
• Make updates to account settings or personal information
• Request for information on the account other than that related to trading
• Use the primary account holder’s login credentials

You can add an authorized trader to your Self-directed account at any time after your account has been approved.

Please note: Authorized traders will only be able to place trades using the Questrade Edge platforms. After setting up an authorized trader, the authorized trader needs to add Questrade Edge.

You can do this after logging in by clicking the ACCOUNTS menu at the top left, then clicking Other Platforms, then finally Questrade Edge from the top menu.

Please check out the sections below for step-by-step instructions for adding an authorized trader.

Adding an authorized trader

To add an authorized trader to your account, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Questrade account.
2. Head over to the Management page, and click on Manage participants.

3. Choose the account that you’re adding an authorized trader to. Please note: If you have more than one account, the authorized trader will need to be added to each account individually.

4. Click “+ Add an authorized trader” to begin the process.

   This page is also where you can add beneficiaries to certain account types, check out this article for more information.

5. Click the green continue button in the pop-up to proceed.

   Please note: You will be asked to provide personal information about the authorized trader as part of our mandatory regulatory review, please have this ready to make sure the process goes smoothly.

   
6. On the Authorized trader pop-up page, you can either click “+ Add new participant”, or if you have already added an authorized trader, or beneficiary for another account, their name will be listed under Existing participants.

   If you select an existing participant, simply click Continue to move on after they have been selected.

   
7. For a new participant, click “+ Add new participant” and you will be prompted to enter their first & last name.

   Please note: The name listed must match the authorized trader’s government ID exactly.

   
8. After you add the participant, please click the green continue button.
9. Next, you will be asked to confirm the authorized trader’s personal information.
   1. Please fill out the phone number, email, date of birth, marital status & residential address.
   2. If the authorized trader is married, or common-law, you will also need to provide their spouse/partner’s details.
   
10. After confirming the personal information, you will be asked to provide the employment information for the authorized trader:
    1. Please choose the employment type from the top menu.
    2. If the authorized trader is employed or self-employed, we will ask for their employer’s details as part of our regulatory review.
    3. Please complete the fields including: Employer name, type of business, job title, work phone number, and address.
    
11. If the authorized trader is a student, unemployed, retired, or a homemaker, you will be asked to provide their main source of income.

    For example: Pension, student loans, dividend payments, rental property income.

    
12. Lastly, in the employment section, you will be asked to confirm three regulatory questions.

    If you answered yes to any of the questions, you may be asked to provide additional information.

    
13. The last section will be the Tax Residency tab, here you will be asked to confirm the authorized trader’s country of citizenship.

    If the authorized trader is a Canadian citizen, we will also need their Social Insurance (SIN) number.

    

After you finish the Personal, Employment and Citizenship areas and click “Continue”, you will be prompted to download your pre-filled trading authorization form. Simply click the download button to save it to your computer, then print and have both the account holder, and authorized trader sign on the last page.

You can also upload the completed form right here after it has been signed, or you can head to the regular upload documents page. Please make sure to upload the form as a “Trading authorization order execution account only” document type.

You will also need to upload any other documents required in the application. Depending on the authorized trader, we may ask for additional documents like an address, or financial document.

For more help with uploading your documents, feel free to check out this great in-depth guide.

Once all the documents have been provided, please allow for 1-3 business days for processing. Then to finalize the set up, please check out the instructions below.

Completing the authorized trader set-up

After all the required documents have been submitted, reviewed and approved, you as the account holder will receive an automatic email prompting you to complete the set-up.

Step 1

Once logged in, head over to the Management page, then click Manage participants.

Step 2

Choose the account you’re adding an authorized trader to from the drop-down menu.

Click Grant online access next to the authorized trader’s name.

Step 3

Afterwards, click the small Start button next to the authorized trader’s name.

You will be asked to confirm the authorized trader’s email address, and will also be asked to add a “Secret phrase”.

Your secret phrase will be provided to the authorized trader by you as the account holder so they can finish the process from their end.

You can think of your secret phrase as your one-time password that the authorized trader needs to enter, we recommend only sharing this phrase through a secure channel for additional account security.

After you click continue an automatic email will be sent to the authorized trader to confirm their access.

Step 4

The authorized trader will need to click the link in their email, and they will be taken to a page to enter the secret phrase from earlier.

Step 5

Next, if the authorized trader is already a Questrade customer, they can simply enter their username and password.

If the authorized trader does not have their own Questrade account, they will be asked to create a new username and password.

Step 6

After confirming their username and password, once the authorized trader clicks continue they will see this final confirmation screen:

Please allow for 1-2 business days for our back office team to approve the new authorized trader, and set up access in the back-end.

After the authorized trader has been fully approved, they will gain access to the trading platforms and account the following business day.

Congratulations! You’ve added an authorized trader to your self-directed Questrade account.